_Memorial respecting two Spanish Vessels._
Memorial or relation of the injury sustained by two Captains of Spanish merchantmen, which had sailed, the one from the river of London, loaded with merchandise for Cadiz, on the account and at the risk of Spanish merchants; and the other from the port of Cadiz, loaded with wines, fruits, cochineal, and other articles, of the growth of the Spanish territory, belonging also to Spaniards, bound for London. These two vessels were stopped by two different privateers, carrying the flag of the United States of America, and brought the one to Newbury and the other to Beverly, and then on the demand of the owners of the privateer, the cargo of one of them was declared a lawful prize at Boston, the 28th of last March. They were on the point of passing sentence on the other at the same place, and not doubting that it will suffer the same fate as the first, according to the letters written by the said Captains from the said port of Boston to Don Juan de Mirales, one of which is without date, and the other bearing date of the 3d of this month, he has the honor to impart their contents to his Excellency M. Gerard, Minister Plenipotentiary of the Court of France to the United States of America, requesting him to have the goodness to lay the information before the honorable Congress of the said States, in order to obtain all the satisfaction due to the honor of the flag of his Catholic Majesty, his master, in conformity to the tenor of Articles 14th, 15th, 25th, and 26th, of the treaty of alliance and commerce, between his Most Christian Majesty and the said States of America, signed the 6th of February, 1778. He asks also for the punishment of the infringers of the treaty, or captors, and requests that the Judges may be punished, who have unjustly condemned and sentenced as a lawful prize the said cargo; and provided that the other vessel has met with the same fate, to sentence them to the payment of all the indemnities, expenses, damages, and losses, resulting from the injury sustained by the said vessels, and the interruption of their voyages, besides the injury which this occasions to the proprietors of the same; and this, seeing that at the time in which they were stopped, his Majesty the King of Spain was at peace with all the powers of Europe, and consequently had no enemy to fear; whereas it is possible that since that time, the state of peace between the Court of Spain and other powers may have changed, or will change, before the said Spanish vessels can perform the voyages for which they were designed; and also the decay of the vessels and of the merchandise with which they were loaded, and the great risk offered by a voyage from this continent to any European port, &c. &c. _to wit_;